In episode 639, Rob Walling chats with Andrew Berkowitz, the co-founder and CEO of Suggestion Ox, about the secret sauce to building happy, high-performing teams and how we as founders need to unlearn some of the strict policies that have been in place for hundreds of years.

Suggestion Ox is a feedback platform that helps HR teams build candid communication between leadership and employees. And before that, Andrew co-founded a sports management platform that was acquired in 2021.

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Topics we cover:

2:10 - Why trust is the key ingredient when building high-performing teams
6:56 - Flexible vacation policies
9:17 - Flexible work hours
15:08 - The link between remote work and hiring and retaining great employees
18:14 - Using transparency to build trust with your team
19:43 - How transparent should you be with your team for temporary issues?
21:55 - Does this approach to trust and transparency work at scale?
25:57 - Getting better at giving constructive feedback as a manager
28:20 - Is it possible to hire the best people at scale?
32:08 - Andrew’s approach to dealing with bad apples or people who slack off
36:41 - Building a company culture where employees feel safe to give candid feedback

Links from the Show:

Andrew Berkowitz I Twitter

Suggestion Ox

Episode 639 | The Secret Sauce to Building Happy, Motivated Teams

Startups For the Rest of Us

Episode 639 | The Secret Sauce to Building Happy, Motivated Teams